Canada to bid for 2018 World Cup?
Earlier today, Sepp Blatter named Canada as one of the countries expressing preliminary interest in hosting the 2018 World Cup.
“We are in 2007 and the 2018 World Cup has already started,” Blatter said. “The United States, Mexico, Canada, Belgium and Holland which are united, Spain — don’t forget them — Russia and, of course, England. … Then there are China, Japan and Australia.”
A spokesman for the CSA, Richard Scott, said, “Obviously, we’re interested in hosting world-class soccer events and growing the game in Canada, but nothing is official.”
While it would be fantastic to see us mount a bid for the 2018 WC, realistically I’m not sure we currently have the world class facilities or capacity to handle an event like the WC. That said, 2018 is a ways off and there would certainly be time to create those facilities.
Another issue is whether we will have a team capable of competing at that level as the host country. One thing the U20 WC showed us is that we have a long way to go to play with the big boys. Hopefully 2010 will begin to turn the corner on our MNT and we would be able to field a competitive team should we host the event in 2018.
A joint bid with the US would help out with the facilities as there are enough dedicated pitches in the US with capacity to handle an event like the WC. But while a joint US bid is appealing to Canada, I’m not sure there is any motivation in the US for a joint bid.
At any rate, it’s making me dream about how wonderful it would be to take my 12 year old son to a world class game in Vancouver in 2018.
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